But this doesn’t mean Planned Parenthood is turning over a new leaf. In fact, the organization believes that cases like Gosnell’s are exactly why abortions should be more readily available to women nationwide.

“This verdict will ensure that no woman is victimized by Kermit Gosnell ever again,” Planned Parenthood spokesman Eric Ferrero said in a statement Monday. “This case has made clear that we must have and enforce laws that protect access to safe and legal abortion, and we must reject misguided laws that would limit women’s options and force them to seek treatment from criminals like Kermit Gosnell.”

On the flip side, pro-life activists argue that the Gosnell case is exactly why certain abortion practices should be banned.

“We call upon Congress to investigate all those participating in or willing to participate in this kind of brutality toward vulnerable women and children, and end it,” Live Action President Lila Rose said in a statement.

RNC Chairman Reince Priebus also called the Gosnell verdict a wake-up call. “We must ask the uncomfortable question: How many more Gosnells are out there? It’s unconscionable that he slipped through the cracks for years—just as it’s inexcusable that his trial was hardly covered until weeks ago,” Preibus said in a statement.

Last week, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) noted that organizations like Planned Parenthood only enable abortion doctors like Gosnell. “Is the case of Dr. Gosnell really an outlier? Or is the legitimacy of the late-term abortion industry merely a lie? The American people deserve to know,” he told The Daily Caller.

Gosnell was also charged Monday with third-degree murder in the case of a patient who died from a drug overdose during surgery. The jury in the Gosnell case will reconvene Tuesday to decide if he will receive the death penalty or life imprisonment. He also faces federal drug charges; that trial is set for September.

John Oliver, who once spurred his followers to crash the FCC’s website demanding net neutrality, is positively gleeful over the news that the agency has approved rules to regulate the internet like a public utility.

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg gives pretty hilarious and biting interviews in real life — “not 100 percent sober” ringing any bells? — but Kate McKinnon’s version of the “Notorious RBG” on Saturday Night Live’s “Weekend Update” may just take the cake. From jokes about her morning exercise routine to her sexy dreams about […]

White House

WASHINGTON (AP) — Amid appeals for bipartisanship, President Barack Obama in just three days has provoked Republicans on issues as disparate as immigration, Wall Street and the Keystone XL pipeline — a combative mix of defense and offense that underscores Washington's political realignment.

Defying the Republican-run Congress, President Barack Obama rejected a bill Tuesday to approve construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline, wielding his veto power for only the third time in his presidency.

You know it’s bad when President Obama has even lost the support of MSNBC. MSNBC Host Andrea Mitchell basically called the White House’s Summit on “Countering Violent Extremism” a farce during her show Wednesday. “Here he has the summit, no heads of government coming, the participation has not been at a particularly high level. We’ll have […]

The president’s interview with Re/code over the weekend touched on privacy issues, with Obama insisting with “almost complete confidence” that there have been no abuses of the government’s vast surveillance program.

After a week that saw Republican infighting leading to a dramatic near-shutdown situation for the Department of Homeland Security, House Speaker John Boehner was questioned on CBS’s “Face the Nation” about his leadership. Boehner downplayed the divisions and said that it wasn’t the big picture that they disagreed on, but rather how to accomplish it. […]

Democrats really jumped the gun on this one. It seems that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee was in such a hurry to fundraise over their hatred for Republicans this weekend that they were willing to spread a little misinformation to do so. The DCCC emailed supporters Saturday morning incorrectly saying that Republicans had allowed the Department of […]

Rand Paul’s speech at CPAC Friday felt a lot like a campaign rally—and the crowd left little room to doubt that they wanted it that way, breaking out into chants of “President Paul! President Paul!” at least three times over the course of his remarks.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has his sights set on 2016, but he is not very optimistic about what will happen both at home and abroad in the mean time. Cruz laid out his predictions for the direction he believes President Obama is leading the country in during a round table event with reporters and bloggers […]